Arch Linux

sashka76

Member

Registered: 2014-03-20

Posts: 6

NVIDIA 340xx problems

Can someone please explain what to do in my particular case (I'm sure many people are having the same sort of problem).
There is so much information, but none seems to have a definite clear answer.

Used to have the following packages:
- linux
- nvidia

Then I realised that I need linux-pae to enable HIGHMEM support. So the setup became:
- linux-pae
- nvidia-pae

Then NVIDIA dropped support for my card, so I had to switch to nvidia-340xx. There is no nvidia-340xx-pae, so I started using dkms. The setup became:
- linux-pae
- nvidia-340xx-dkms

Then nvidia-340xx-dkms became outdated in AUR (it seems to be no longer maintained), so I had to "update all" ignoring the newest nvidia-340xx-utils and nvidia-340xx-libgl.

Then new Xorg got released which no longer works with outdated nvidia-340xx packages.

Now the only setup that works for me (hanging the latest KDE plasma soon after start and crashing Enlightenment from time to time, but at least it does work) is as follows:
- linux
- nvidia-340xx

How do I get back to using linux-pae and latest nvidia-340xx packages? There is no nvidia-340xx-pae and there is no useful (updated) nvidia-340xx-dkms. Some options I could think off (I don't really like any of them):
- learn to maintain AUR package nvidia-340xx-dkms (I don't yet know what it involves)
- compile my own kernel every release with PAE turned on (somehow?)
- switch to 64-bit system (don't want to re-install everything, also what if some packages would not exist in 64-bit?)

Thanks for anyone in advance who can offer a useful clear clean solution :-)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,076

Re: NVIDIA 340xx problems

As PAE isn't really recommended anyway I'd say the best course of action would be to migrate to 64bit. Regarding your concern of packages not existing, which really isn't that much of an issue considering that A) most programs are 64bit compatible B) those that aren't still work, you can use multilib and friends to use 32bit packages (this is pretty much handled for every official package, unofficial ones you may need to hunt down lib32-variants, but the AUR won't leave you hanging most of the time). I'd say the chance of the reverse happening, programs that require 64bit and won't work on 32bit because they use some advanced features is far bigger than 32bit programs breaking (do you have any specific package in mind when you mention that?). Regarding the migration we have an article on that:  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mi … installing, this one may also be worth a read https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/64-bit_FAQ

Last edited by V1del (2015-02-19 17:18:11)

sashka76

Member

Registered: 2014-03-20

Posts: 6

Re: NVIDIA 340xx problems

Thanks a lot for such a good and diligent answer. And for the links. I think I have no option other than taking your advise :-)